


The Dance

by angelus2hot



Category: Angel: the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Angst, Community: fandomhits, Episode Related, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-29
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-06-05 04:27:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6689140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelus2hot/pseuds/angelus2hot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during and after the BtVS Season 3 Episode 20 The Prom. If you could know the ending would you change the beginning?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dance

**Author's Note:**

> **Title:** The Dance  
>  **Fandom:** Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series  
>  **Characters/Pairing:** Angel/Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg, Allen Francis Doyle  
>  **Rating:** PG-13  
>  **Word Count:** 703  
>  **Summary:** Set during and after the BtVS Season 3 Episode 20 The Prom. If you could know the ending would you change the beginning?  
>  **A/N:** written for fandomhits for the song "The Dance' by Garth Brooks on my [playlist](http://angelus2hot.livejournal.com/647953.html)  
>  **A/N2:** The beginning words were taken from the episode.

As Angel walked towards her wearing a tuxedo Buffy’s breath caught in her throat and she couldn’t help but stare. “I never thought you’d come.”

He had the grace to look sheepish. “It’s a big night. I didn’t want to miss it. It’s just tonight. It doesn’t mean that I...”

For a split second she had thought Angel had changed his mind and that they could stay together but she should have known better. He was still leaving her. Buffy nodded her head and whispered quietly. “I know. I mean. I understand.” She wanted to yell and scream and tell him she didn’t understand. _How could he make the decision to leave without talking to her about it first?_

Angel held out his hand. “Dance with me?” His fingers wrapped around hers as she placed her hand in his without a word.

Buffy laid her head on Angel’s chest as the music began to softly play. She tried not to show how much her heart was breaking in two. _How was she suppose to live without him?_ She gave herself a mental shake. There was no point in falling apart now. There would be time enough for that later. Angel was allowing them this one last moment together and as much as it hurt she didn’t want to miss a single second of the time they had left. With a silent sigh she closed her eyes, snuggled closer and began to store up the memories that were going to have to last her a lifetime.

 

***

 

Willow stared down at her friend. The pain and sorrow Buffy was feeling was an agony to watch. She could only imagine what it felt like to experience it. “Are you sorry?” The question slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it.

“What?” Buffy wiped futilely at the tears falling down her face.

“What I mean is do you wish you could have known how you and Angel would end?” She handed Buffy a tissue and waited.

Buffy quickly wiped her eyes. “No. I don’t. The only thing I wish...” She stopped herself before she could even finish the thought. “And it wouldn’t matter anyway. I wouldn’t change anything. I wouldn’t have missed loving Angel not for the world. He was the best thing that has ever happened to me.” Buffy did fine until she spoke his name and then the tears started falling harder and as the pain washed over her Buffy crumpled onto the bed, the agony almost more than she could possibly bear.

Willow didn’t get it how could all this pain be worth it? But she kept her curiosity to herself.

 

***

 

“Do you regret it?” Doyle’s curiosity was piqued the minute Angel had told him the story of how he’d come to LA.

“Regret Buffy? Holding her, loving her?” Angel’s voice was incredulous. He regretted a lot of things in his life but Buffy wasn’t one of them. He shook his head as sadness almost overwhelmed him. “No. She was the best thing to ever happen to me.”

Doyle couldn’t let it go. If he loved someone as much as he knew Angel loved Buffy he was damn sure he wouldn’t have given her up. “If you love her so much then why aren’t you with her? How could you have left her in the first place?”

Angel stood. He had to get out of this conversation. His voice was barely above a whisper as he spoke. “It’s because I love her more than she will ever know, more than the world that I’m not. I didn’t have choice. Buffy deserves so much more than what I could offer her. How could I expect her to spend her life with me in the dark?”

Something about this didn’t sound right. “But if Buffy loved you as much wouldn’t she have wanted to...?”

He quickly interrupted before Doyle could finish. “I didn’t ask her. What right did I have to deny her a life spent in the sun? I can’t give her children or any of the other things a ‘normal’ girl wants.” Without another word Angel quickly left the room, leaving Doyle staring after him with a thoughtful look on his face.


End file.
